All of which brings to mind Mark Twain's famous remark
upon reading his own obituary that "Rumors of my death have been greatly
exaggerated."

In 2003, the global area of
biotech crops grew a
remarkable 15 percent according to the International Service for the
Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA), an even greater expansion
than the year before. The "167 million acres was grown by 7 million
farmers in 18 countries, an increase from 6 million farmers in 16 countries in
2002," says an ISAAA report. In the last eight years, the number of
biotech crop acres worldwide increased by a staggering 40 fold.

But no, "Farmers
have made up their minds," said Clive
James, chairman and founder of ISAAA. "They continue to rapidly adopt
biotech crops because of significant agronomic, economic, environmental and
social advantages."

Another problem for Roundup
Ready Wheat is that while, like all Roundup Ready crops, it's better for the environment
by requiring less tilling of the land and reducing herbicide runoff, a farmer's
first job is to make money. The added value of these new seeds
simply wasn't as great as seen with other biotech crops.

Consumer Acceptance

But consumer acceptance
clearly was a factor.

"Nobody that I've
talked to in business has the least scientific, technical or food safety
objection to biotech wheat," Coppock told me. "But they are concerned
with the customer."

That's why even some
mainstream wheat
farming associations opposed it. So far, the vast majority of biotech crops
grown have been used for animal consumption or cotton materials. Biotech
soybean meal and oil and biotech canola oil are in practically everything we
eat, it seems. But they constitute minor ingredients compared to "the
staff of life."

Start with the traditional
status of bread and hence wheat, mix in a cup of hysteria from the competing organic farmers and
environmentalists, and you get farmer fear that all wheat products would be
disparaged.

Thus it makes sense for
Monsanto to wait until consumer awareness catches up to its wheat, even as it looks to introduce
other biotech crops such as potatoes; new types of cotton and corn;
tomatoes, and rice. It hopes to commercialize the wheat in four to eight years when more
biotech traits could be added to the crops.